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Fracking requires regulation, taxation

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The Dispatch.

Fracking is going to happen in Ohio and fracking waste can’t legally be prohibited from Ohio.
That is clear from the recent articles in
The Dispatch. So taxing it is the best idea (a little like cigarettes and booze), and as
much as one can.

Heavier taxation of disposal might discourage some importation from Pennsylvania and West
Virginia, but it will supply adequate funds to thoroughly study and regulate it.

The best way to allay reasonable concerns that people have about fracking damage to land and
water is to fully fund regulation and inspection of fracking and disposal. It would be best to
assign a full-time qualified inspector to each fracking site, but that might be impossible because
there would not be nearly enough qualified people to do it.

And there is the question of a balancing reduction in other current taxes. How about an
alternative? Ohio absolutely needs to increase the gasoline tax, probably not this year with an
election in the works, but next year. The best course would be to establish a substantial tax on
fracking and disposal this year, something comparable to the Western states, maybe double what is
proposed now by the legislature.

The revenue could be used for transportation funding, meaning that a smaller gasoline tax
increase would be needed next year.

Funds could be used in part to offset fracking damage to roads in the oil and gasoline
production areas. Funds from the tax also could be partially allocated to mass transit, for which
Ohio gasoline tax cannot be used (though part of the federal gasoline tax can be used for mass
transit).

Or we can continue beating our vehicles to pieces on rutted pavement, closing rusted bridges,
experiencing unnecessary accidents and leaving those without cars with inadequate
transportation.